William W. Outerbridge

William Woodward Outerbridge (14 April 1906-20 September 1986) was a Rear Admiral of the US Navy. On 7 December 1941, as the captain of destroyer USS Ward, he fired the United States' first shots of World War II, sinking an Imperial Japanese Navy midget submarine that attempted to enter Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Biography
William Woodward Outerbridge was born on 14 April 1906 in Victoria, Hong Kong, and he was raised in Middleport, Ohio back in the United States. He graduated from the Marion Military Academy in Alabama, and he graduated from the US Navy Academy in 1927. On 5 December 1941, he was given command of the destroyer USS Ward in Hawaii, and he sunk a Japanese midget submarine as it attempted to infiltrate the naval base at Pearl Harbor. He was awarded the Navy Cross for this action, and he later commanded other ships that covered the American invasions of Normandy, Cherbourg, and the Philippines in 1944; he had his ship O'Brien scuttle the Ward, his old ship, after it had been badly damaged in a kamikaze attack. In 1957, he retired from the navy with the rank of Rear Admiral, and he died in Tifton, Georgia on 20 September 1986.